1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for preserving prior states of protected memory to which computer systems can be restored.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Programs presently exist for backing up data from an area of memory to another area of memory or to an auxiliary storage device. These programs typically operate by physically copying entire computer files or incremental changes to data stored in files, typically after changes are made to the files or at certain predetermined time intervals. Some of these programs allow for the backing up and restoring of the computer operating system. Sometimes, the user performs some modification of a computer file or the operating system that causes corruption of the file or catastrophic operating system failure of the computing system. When this occurs, the file or operating system would be rendered unusable and unrecoverable.
One example of this involves a user performing some undesirable modification of the operating system that disables the computing system and prevents its operation. Another example is when a user desires to “clean up” certain portions of the hard disk of the computing system. In this situation, the user may delete certain files within the hard disk without a great deal of caution or knowledge as to the consequences of the changes being made. A further example is when a computer application program itself erroneously corrupts data files or operating system data.
Many existing programs for backing up and restoring data consume significant computing system resources, for example, processor cycles, memory usage, or disk storage. These systems typically save and restore data by copying from one location to another. Even if the saving of the data is done during times of low utilization of the computer system, e.g., during the evening or during the user's lunch break, the restoration can nonetheless be slow and cumbersome due to having to copy data from the backup storage area to the original storage area.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that preserves protected memory in a manner that is transparent to the user, that includes multiple recovery points and that does not consume significant computer system resources. The system and method would also maintain the multiple recovery points by creating and managing one or more tables, e.g., matrix tables, so that restoring the computer system to a previous recovery state would be accomplished in a very fast and efficient manner that does not require the copying of preserved data from one memory location to another.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.